Champions League

Juventus 0-3 Real Madrid: The Bianconeri Player Ratings

Juventus 0-3 Real Madrid: The Bianconeri Player Ratings

Cristiano Ronaldo steals the show for Real Madrid as Juventus fall to the Spanish giants 3-0 at Allianz Stadium in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final.

Here are the Juventus player ratings.

Gianluigi Buffon (5.5): The legendary keeper faced quite a bit of danger tonight from Real Madrid, and along with his defence looking off their game, it was Cristiano Ronaldo who really proved unplayable throughout. Not much more for Buffon to do except tip his cap to the solo brilliance of CR7.

Mattia De Sciglio (4.5): A suspect performance from the ex-Milan defender tonight. De Sciglio was out of position on the first goal and really was never able to find his footing at all.

Andrea Barzagli (5.0): The 36-year old struggled tonight for pace and really looked a step behind the rest. No longer can Barzagli be relied heavily upon in matches of this magnitude.

Giorgio Chiellini (5.0): Contributed to Ronaldo’s second with some poor play in the back that forced Buffon into facing additional danger from Real Madrid. Most nights, Giorgio is nails in the back, but tonight wasn’t his best performance.

Kwadwo Asamoah (6.0): The 29-year old turned in a decent first half performance with the match still at 0-1, but was subbed off in the 69th minute for Mario Mandzukic in an attempt by Allegri to seek out a goal.

Douglas Costa (6.0): The Brazilian looked dangerous when he did get on the ball, but Juventus struggled a tad to supply him enough where he could properly impact the bout. A player of Costa’s caliber must get more than 50 touches, especially against Real Madrid where his talents unquestionably open up the game.

Rodrigo Bentancur (6.0): The Uruguayan midfielder did well in place of Miralem Pjanic, completing 90% of his passes and looking confident on the ball. He certainly has some growing to do, but nights like these against Real Madrid should bode well for his development.

Sami Khedira (6.5): The German has been suspect this season at times, but when he has been on, it is easy to spot. Tonight, Khedira rolled back the years when he was playing for his opponent and partnered well with a younger Bentancur. Sami still has some left in the tank, despite what the scoreline shows.

Alex Sandro (5.5): The Brazilian was played as a left-midfielder in a 4-4-2/4-2-3-1, yet was unable to find himself in position to make a difference. Allegri has tried Alex Sandro in this role a bit during the season, but it’s something that renders too inconsistent results.

Gonzalo Higuain (5.5): In the first half, the Argentina striker had some quality looks but either was a bit wasteful or denied by some brilliant goalkeeping from Keylor Navas who was called upon often to pull off some big saves.

Paulo Dybala (5.0): Disappointing performance by Dybala. Space started to open up towards the end of the first half and beginning of the second, and at times he looked good on the ball, but his mentality to carry Juventus in these matches just isn’t there yet. Lacked the end product in the final third and was too quick to look for a foul rather than battling to stay on his feet. The silly red card didn’t help his rating either.

Substitutions

Mario Mandzukic (5.5): The Croatian came on in the 69th minute with the game at 2-0 in hopes of helping Juventus salvage something from the match, but was unable to do much.

Blaise Matuidi (5.0): The Frenchman was expected to get the starting nod, but instead came off the bench with 20 minutes to play where Juventus were chasing just about anything they could from this match. Matuidi touched the ball just 14 times and had little impact.

Juan Cuadrado (n/a): Cuadrado, who scored the second of three against Milan last weekend, was given a 15 minute cameo in this one after Marcelo buried the third for Real Madrid.